Aer Lingus is considering taking legal action against the Irish Aviation Authority cap of 14.4m seats at Dublin Airport for the winter season, which the airline says potentially impacts seasonal flights such as trips to Lapland and ski charters. Ryanair also exploring their legal options in response to the winter cap.
Aer Lingus CEO, Lynne Embleton, warned that the cap could have negative effects on the economy and Irish public, particularly for ad-hoc flights and sporting events.
Dublin Airport is subject to an annual passenger cap of 32m, with the DAA seeking to raise this to 40m through a wider infrastructure development plan.
At the IAG Q1 results call Ms Embleton highlighted the cap as a significant issue for Aer Lingus and urged urgent action to resolve the situation, emphasizing the need for government intervention: “importantly, there now needs to be urgent action to resolve this [overall planning cap. I’d like to see more leadership from the government now on this topic. There needs to be proper action taken on this issue. I believe that government intervention is required. The form of that intervention, I don’t think I’m best placed to describe. But I don’t think we can have a situation now where national infrastructure and the interest of the economy and the travelling public are seriously harmed.”
IAG chief executive Luis Gallego said there needs to have certainty about the returns its investments will generate. In the case of Aer Lingus now, we need to have cost certainty. We have 14 XLRs [on order for IAG], so we need to take a decision still about the others. The only thing that is clear is that this first aircraft won’t go to Aer Lingus.”
Aer Lingus is facing challenges in reaching a pay agreement with its pilots, resulting in the loss of the delivery of an Airbus A321XLR jet to Iberia instead of Aer Lingus:
